Rewarding peony

Bees are going bananas over the smashing lovely peony. It has opened up completely now, it's luring loads of pollinators (and humans) with it's lovely, dazzling smell.

More jobs completed

All this happened last week, but I'm saving some stuff and spreading it out over a couple of entries. We had the gate and the enclosure from the coral pulled out so we can start afresh. We're re-using the gate (after it's had a good clean and paint job). We also had to make sure the next time we put the posts in they don't suffer from water eroding the wood. As long as they're in the ground and wet it doesn't matter. But the rain from the roof where we keep the wheel barrow and some other stuff just fell near the post and it had rotted away.

I had the idea to put a gutter there and then collect the water so we can use it to water plants and such.
We still had some pieces left over from when we made the flower pots out front.
And there was a discount on a water butt so we got one in. It's got a flexi hose attached to it, you can see how much water is in there plus it works very easily thanks to the principle of communicating vessels. Just unhook it, lower it and you can fill up whatever you want. We still need to hose the wall down with the high pressure cleaner and then treat it.

Dr Livingstone really put his back into it (literally) and also cleaned out the little shelter. It was still full of leaves and stuff from last winter.

No really. His back is very bad at the moment. He's been seeing doctors, physiotherapists and taking ice pack remedies. Too much work in the garden! His hands are itching and he just can't sit still for one bit.

I'm sensing he's enjoying this gardening stuff. Especially since some of the veggies are ready to eat this coming weekend! yes, we're going to give the salad a try. All homegrown, no herbicides, pesticides or what have you. Just water and sun.

Gardening breaks

In between studying I've been taking a break doing a bit of gardening. My mushroom has made it to the front yard! It's there! It looks rather inconspicuous at the moment, the peony dwarfing it at the moment.
It'll really stand out in winter when there's nothing about.

Also some pretty plants I had bought earlier finally went in. They were craving for water the last couple of days, I was trying my best to keep them happy and alive, but the best place for them is where they are currently residing. Three lavender augustifolia, six sedums, four dianthus and six salvia officinalis. I looked it up, the herb is good for just about anything, bar cleaning your windows I think.

I got it because on the label it said it blooms between June and October. But teh intertubes tell me it's just in June and July. I thought it would add a little colour when everything else is starting to fade.
All plants I put in love a bit of dry, well drained soil. Which is excellent because there is still a lot of rubble in the ground there because the old path leading to the front door was there. When tilling the soil I even dug up an entire brick! And we've been over that spot like a thousand times by now.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing it all start to grow, covering the ground and attracting lots of things with wings.

Headline hegemony

One of the national newspapers had me chuckling away again on Monday.

Three headlines on their online edition had randomly found their way next to each other.

They read: 

1) 'War agains sexual violence upped'

2) 'German bomber fished out of the Channel'

3) 'Delays possible for those who leave with airplane'

Freud would have had a field day.

Next little step: completed!

Another step closer to completing the herculean task of transforming the garden into something we like.
I completed cleaning up the borders around the plants where the borders have gone in. Pulled out all the weeds, laid down anti-root membrane (which I had recuperated before the bulldozers went in last year) and then filled it in with tree bark (red pine). It looks very neat and tidy now.

I also filled in the path Dr Livingstone has made to get around his veggie beds and crates. It's not quite finished yet, but I'm nearly done. I'll finish it when the exams are over. Now I'm just doing stuff during my study breaks to get some fresh air and a little exercise.

The grass man rang to say he's going to do the job this coming weekend! Yay.

Similar

I've spotted a peculiar simularity between the logo of 'Storify' and the logo of bankrupt Belgian national airline Sabena.
Are they in any way related? I think we should be told.

Summer spring

Finally the weather we were all dreaming of has arrived and has excelled all the expectations.
We broke the national record again yesterday, warmest spot in Belgium yesterday.
Anyone complaining about it being too warm: they should be punched in the face. With a chair.
Don't say I warned in advance.

Border line

The guys came and put the borders in we had asked them to (a very long while ago). Things are slowly taking shape. We're chuffed to bits and went to look at them several times after they had been put there.
This is finally starting to look like a proper garden for relaxing and enjoying when the weather is ok.
We got word from the lawn guy, he's going to start sowing in two weeks time and the crane guy started again on Wednesday with the clearing of the excess ground at the rear of our patch of land. Stupid rain delayed the works by a forthnight!

But slowly, very slowly, things are looking up and we are seeing the light at the end of the gardening tunnel.
If the big works are over; we can finally sit back and enjoy a game of petanque amid a fair few flowers and buzzing insects.

And holding some kind of cocktail, Ricard or other kind of alcoholic beverage.
And sitting in one of the nice comfy wicker garden sets we ordered and should arrive at the end of this month.
Hurrah!
But first... exams!

Budding to go

The peony rose is not open yet but will be any day this week. Dr Livingstone thought we would have a little bet as to which bud will open first, but actually we're too tired to even look nowadays.
I saw a sturdy bumble bee try to pry open the bud to get to the good stuff, but the bud wasn't going to yield any of its deliciousness just yet.
The plant has also been spared the usual tramp-tramp of the ant jackboot. Strange, I thought they'd be the first ones in trying to steal the nectar on the outside of the bud.
We're both glad the two peony's survived the digging last year and are doing so well now, it will give an extra added colour to the monotonous green shades still lurking about this late spring.

Clematis in starring role

The clematis growing around the car port is making sure we're getting that full on (belated) spring feeling. Nearly all the buds are open and attracting a lot of attention of pollinators. I've stood and watched, very glad of seeing so much bee activity. I'm no expert, but I'm sure I've counted five different types of bees in a very short time, notwithstanding we're a bit short on flowers in bloom in the rest of the garden due to the cold weather.

I don't know what kind of clematis it is, I tried to look it up on the web and stumbled upon a site called Clematis on the web and their database contains about 3500 varieties of clematis. I gave up looking. I've got a nice dark pink one. That's enough for me.

Crated and ready for growth

I made four crates for veg and flowers as mentioned in an earlier post. They are a tad lower than the two that Dr Livingstone had put in the veg garden earlier this season. Together with Dr Livingstone we stapled pond liner to the inside of the boxes and put them in the newly tilled (and levelled) soil. Here's proof of my our labours.
Still need to get some manure in to regenerate the soil and make everything yield ginourmous sizes of everything ranging from raddish to red beetroots and sunflowers.

Green activities

Things have been going on in the garden...
- borders in stone have been put down
- extra crates for veg and flowers have been made
- rotten potatoes have been dug up and fresh ones planted
- weeds have been pulled out
- sand and excess ground have been taken out
- lots of rain has fallen the past two weeks and has delayed everything

All this and more to look forward to on this blog!
I will leave you with the 'Wtf are you people doing to my kingdom'-face Mouser has been pulling when things are happening outdoors.

Hotel guest close up

We're still taking bookings, but the second bee hotel under the car port is filling up rapidly.
What a difference a couple of days of sunshine can make! I managed to take a picture of a bee in one of the holes. It was very responsive to every move I was making with the camera and waiting for me to go away.

In the house

Dr Livingstone fastened the plastic conservatory to the ground (so it won't blow into our neighbour's pond!) and today the plants went into the ground.

I fastened some ropes between two planks so they can serve as a grow-guide. Everything got a place: 4 cherry tomatoes, 2 normal tomatoes, 2 F1 tomatoes [I hope those will grow VERY fast], 2 paprika's, 1 peperoncino (or something very much like it) and 1 cucumber. 

Plenty of good soil added and now it's up to the plants to do the work. And Dr Livingstone to water them regularly...

Garden update

It looks like this blog is turning into a gardening blog.
Loads of stuff has been going on, Dr Livingstone and myself have been VERY busy at work and in college. And somehow we've managed to find some time to plunge headlong into gardening.
It's beginning to look pretty trim now. Bar the weeding. It's all a work in progress, but it's slowly taking shape.
Some things just grow by themselves and are doing very well. The climatis by the car port is holding back for some better weather I think. Dr Livingstone moved a bee hotel from the back near the stables to this sunny spot underneath the one that was already there. The top one is already full, let's hope the other one will house a plethora of new bees to pollinate the flowers and veg.

Dr Livingstone has been planting some veg in the self-made crates I mentioned earlier. This is the way to beat backache (well, erm, after doing all the hard work).
Crazy neighbour gave him some salad to plant and our other neighbour gave some Tagates to plant in between the rows of onions, leek and potatoes.

Last weekend we also got some poles and some plastic gutters. Dr Livingstone and myself fashioned them into raised flower pots and Crazy Neighbours' wife brought some flowers she had left over. Other neighbour also offered some manure. Looks like they're keen to have a lovely garden next door!

I also made a second space for herbs. Now I've got extra Moroccan mint and I've also moved the dill I had in the conservatory outside.
Dr Livingstone bought a plastic mini conservatory. He fastened it down with some logs so the wind won't transport it somewhere we don't want to. I've bought some red paprika's and a lot of cherry tomato plants. They haven't gone into the ground yet, the guiding poles for growth have only gone in today.
The trellis Dr Livingstone finds hideous also went in the ground and I've planted 4 climatis alongside it and hope they're going to give us a nice rainbow of flowers (if we ever get some spring and nicer temperatures that is).

We've done a fair bit of work and have done more, but I'm saving that for a different post.

Chillin' next door

I went to return the crowbar I had leant from Crazy Neighbour™ and found Mouser chilling on one of their garden chairs on the patio, just outside their kitchen.
The neighbours are
catsitting for their son who's on holiday. So two cats are in the house. A fat blue point called Sylvester and a skinny rusty long haired female called Missy.
Mouser knows they are there and is keeping an eye on them, looking in, stalking.

Till the end

The garden is turning into absolute wilderness. Were there's supposed to be a lush, nicely trimmed lawn, there's weeds as far as the eye can see. The concrete borders are still absent and the guys who were going to do the lawn haven't been in touch.
Dr Livingstone had enough, we decided to go out and buy a tilling machine.
We rented one last year to break the ground, it was a heavy thing, weighing about 300kgs. This one is ideal for giving the area Dr Livingstone wants to have his veg patch on. It's only 70 kgs and handles much easier then that beast from last time.
It's going very well, Dr Livingstone is very pleased with it and he's been at it for an hour at a time as long as his back permits.
We've also made some crates to grow veg in from old pallets.
I'm chopping some up and adding some plank here and there. Dr Livingstone stapled some plastic lining on the inside and is now filling them with some dirt.
We're still working on the rest, but it's coming along nicely.

Spring on campus

This is what (part of) the engineering campus looks like on a sunny morning around 10 am.
In winter you can see squirrels looking for nuts without noticing you from behind the window. In spring and summer there are kayakers on the river.

Chicken or egg

Dr Livingstone found an egg in the front garden. I had seen it two days earlier but thought it was a snatched and empty egg. Sometimes the pine marten robs them from the coop. But Dr Livingstone brought it to the kitchen and said:'It's still in tact, I'm having that for breakfast!'. I took another egg we got from our neighbour, its different.
I'm guessing that egg belongs to a duck rather than a chicken.
He boiled them together, luckily it turned out the duck egg wasn't fertilized.